Science writing is not about writing glittering prose. It’s about clearly explaining scientific discoveries to your readers. Many of my 1,100 published articles are science stories.
Does “one hour of writing time can increase your weekly income by at least $150” sound like a lyric from The Impossible Dream? Well, it isn’t – not if you write fillers. Writing fillers is an excellent way for beginners to break into print, or for established writers to boost their income.
Magazines for hunters and fishermen have been around in North America for about as long as modern magazines have been around in North America, that is to say, a long time, since the 1850s-1870s or so. Hunting for whitetail, mule deer, elk, and wild turkey and fishing for trout, steelhead, bass, striper and marlin in saltwater was how landowners of that era fed their families. In the 20th century, sportfishing became popular and saltwater fly fishermen would fish for bonefish in the flats in Florida and the Caribbean. The bounty of the land has always been relatively plentiful, and many people still live off it to some degree, and a LOT of magazines cater to these folks. Learn to write for these mags and you’ve got some good, steady paychecks coming your way.
If you love traveling through the heartland, if your politics are populist, if you have the ability to laugh at yourself, and if your writing, research, and interviewing skills are strong, you can write for the farming trades. These magazines publish articles on every topic from bull sperm to beekeeping, goat farming to organic vegetable farming, as well as cheesemaking, livestock breeding, and cattle ranching.
Craps, Baffert’s Gin, Santa Damiana cigars, exotic destinations like Montreal, Morocco, Costa Rica, St. Kitt. Micro-micro small batch beers and Watanabe-tailored suits. Cigarette boats.
All of these are vice-related article ideas that have appeared or appear regularly in the pages of magazines like Esquire, Cigar Aficionado, All About Beer, Wine Spectator, and the whole host of poker and gambling related magazines that you can find at any large newsstand. And if you like the things I’ve just spoken of, you can write about them too.
Magazines for musicians have been around in their present form since the early 1960s. Every kid with $25 for an acoustic guitar or $150 or so for a really nice, American-made electric was forming a rock ‘n’ roll band, while other kids played orchestral instruments such as flute, violin and double bass. The folk revival was on and magazines like Sing Out and Broadside supplemented the incomes of the popular players of the day by publishing their compositions. Kids who were really rebellious played jazz. Music was everywhere, and the magazines covered it.
Magazines published by hundreds of associations and professional organizations offer lucrative freelance markets. The ‘Associations’ section of WritersMarket.com lists 34 association magazines and there are many more. The ‘Encyclopedia of Associations’ lists over 135,000 nonprofit membership organizations worldwide while the ‘National Organizations of the U.S.’ details over 22,200 national associations.
Today, we’re going to list foreign market resources like foreign sites and e-zines. At the same time, we’re going to discuss how we found them and how you can find many, many more.
How often do you find yourself reading through the posts of an Internet writing board only to be caught in a series of complaints? We writers sure can write, but sometimes our focus doesn’t seem all that – how can I say this delicately? – productive.
If there
